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Book 13: Chapter 13: The Two Generals of the Banfield Family
On the bridge of her battleship, Marie was sitting on her seat with her legs crossed.
Usually, during battles, Marie would bark out orders in a rough manner, but right now, she was quietly observing the immortal fleet.
She was facing off against Viscount Toraido, now an undead, but she seemed to have lost her will to fight.
“Not afraid to die, is it…?”
On the other side of the monitor, Viscount Toraido stared at Marie, who appeared to have lost her spirit.
His skin was cracked, his eyes were black, and his pupils were red – all characteristics of an undead.
[Cease your pointless struggles. As long as Lord Farabar’s powers persist, we will revive no matter how many times you kill us. Your efforts are in vain.]
Now that he was unkillable, the Viscount grew bold, showing no fear in battle. This was reflected in his commands, as he began making careless maneuvers and reckless assaults.
His fleet was no longer as organized as before, but they still held the upper hand in battle.
The imperial aristocrats, including Viscount Toraido, were delighted to have become undeads.
[Long live Lord Farabar! Long live our master!]
[Marie Sera Marian-dono, you should also come under Lord Farabar’s wings!]
[Death no longer binds us. This must be the work of God!]
Some of them even began worshipping Farabar as their God, which made sense, since he had the power to bring them back from the dead.
However, Marie wasn’t interested in this at all.
“Our master is Lord Liam and Lord Liam alone. I’d rather be decapitated than serve a random nobody.”
Viscount Toraido frowned upon hearing her frivolous response.
He revealed a bitter expression, recalling the order he had received from Farabar.
[You would’ve been reduced to space dust by now if Lord Farabar had not shown interest in you. It seems you’re getting slightly carried away.]
The reason why Viscount Toraido and his fleet weren’t coming at them with full force was that Farabar had explicitly ordered for the competent Marie to be included in their ranks.
Naturally, Viscount Toraido and the rest of the nobles present weren’t pleased that their adversary was being held in higher regard than themselves.
Marie scoffed when she heard this.
“Oh, really? You speak as if you can kill me whenever you want. Are you still oblivious to the difference in our strength?”
The cracks on Viscount Toraido’s face widened as he snorted.
Displeasure apparent on his face, his expression became even more ominous than it had been in life.
[It seems we must teach the lowly mortals their place.]
Marie became expressionless upon hearing those words.
“You seem to be under the impression that you’ve ascended to a higher plane of existence. ―Fine, let me open up those eyes for you.”
Marie rose from her seat and confirmed with her adjutant their distance from the enemy’s main force.
“How close are we to the enemy’s main fleet? We must not endanger Lord Liam’s ship, even by mistake.”
After checking their distance, the adjutant nodded and gave a thumbs-up.
“We’re all set.”
“Very well. In that case, it’s time to let these naive fools understand the terror of not being able to die!!”
Her adjutant nodded, fully sharing in on Marie’s anger.
“How dare they express delight in their newfound immortality. Until recently, death was a luxury we couldn’t afford even when we wished for it.”
Two thousand years ago, the reigning Emperor had turned Marie and her subordinates into statues while maintaining their consciousness, preventing them from mentally collapsing with the aid of a blessing.
Hence, for Marie and the others, not being able to die when they wished to was the greatest curse.
Marie smiled with bloodshot eyes.
“Let’s see if they’re truly immortal. How many times will they die before they start begging for the sweet embrace of death?”
◇
Meanwhile, on the bridge of her spaceship, Tia was receiving a report from an alchemist clad in a white laboratory coat.
[Here are the results of the experiments we ran using the captured undead. We haven’t fully analyzed them yet, but we’ve found a potential countermeasure. It was just as you predicted, Your Excellency.]
“That so?”
Tia smiled as she checked the data surrounding her.
Seeing that their anti-undead countermeasures were ineffective, they tried a different approach, which ended up yielding promising results.
“So the undead will perish if we kill them after severing their link with the enemy’s main fleet. What happens when the link is restored?”
[They remain unresponsive. Also, this is just a hypothesis, but we believe some of the undeads are superior to the others.]
“Superior? In what ways?”
[The ones that we captured barely had consciousness, but based on the conversation Your Excellency shared with Marquis Hampson, it’s safe to assume his sense of self is intact. In other words, his ability to retain his conscience makes him a higher-ranking undead.]
“I see, so that’s what you meant. In any case, thank you for your hard work. Please continue analyzing the captives.”
[Understood.]
After ending her call, she turned her gaze to Marquis Hampson, who was still being shown on the monitor.
Judging by the bitter expression he had, it seemed their hypothesis was spot on.
“We don’t know how you’re linked to the main force, but it seems your immortality will be gone once we severe them.”
[―Hmph, even if you’ve figured that out, nothing has changed. Liam will soon join our ranks after facing defeat at the hands of Lord Farabar. I’m looking forward to seeing the despair on your face when that happens.]
The communication was promptly cut off.
Revealing a sinister smile, Tia gave her orders to her adjutant.
“He’s right. We don’t have much time.”
“Understood, we’ll begin preparations straight away!”
“Good, we should remind these half-baked immortals what fear is.”
With arms crossed, she waited on the bridge as her fleet got prepared.
However, the enemies weren’t going to let this opportunity pass by, and their attacks intensified.
“Your Excellency, the enemy fleet is gaining momentum!”
Tia was unfazed by the operator’s report. In fact, this came as great news to her.
“Wrong move, Hampson―you’ve revealed how nervous you are with these desperate attempts.”
Faced with the fierce attacks of the enemies, Tia and her fleet had to continuously retreat, but that all stopped when she received a message from her adjutant.
“Your Excellency, our preparation is complete.”
“Then we’ll begin right away.”
“All ships are to synchronize their attacks with the flagship. Fire the missiles, and don’t forget to shower the enemies with attacks from our main cannons before the missiles make impact!”
Tia’s adjutant issued a series of detailed orders which the fleet quickly carried out.
The missiles severed the link between the enemy ships and their main force, which left them vulnerable to attacks from ally ships.
Up until now, the immortal fleet had begun repairs immediately after being destroyed, but there was no longer any sign of that happening.
Tia gave the order to continue.
“Carry on. Their formation has already collapsed due to their reckless charge. We’ll shave off as many enemies as we can here.”
Having discovered the immortal fleet’s Achilles’ heel, Tia smiled towards Hampson.
“This time, I’ll make sure to snuff the life out of you. If you wish to live, you better start scurrying away like the miserable rat that you are, Hampson.”
The operators' voices resonated with a blend of excitement and enthusiasm as they witnessed the collapse of the enemy fleet.
Reports of victory continued to pour in.
“We haven’t seen any signs of repair from the enemy fleet!”
“Ally ships are taking down the enemies one after another!”
“The other fleets have reported back similar results! Henceforth, we will begin attacking the enemy fleet in earnest!”
Previously, whenever an immortal ship was destroyed, it would promptly undergo repairs. However, the aggressive repair process often resulted in some missing parts, leading to deteriorating performance.
At this point, the fleet no longer had any defensive capabilities and could hardly put up a fight, rendering them easy targets for the Banfield Family’s fleet.
Soon enough, Tia’s adjutant discovered an enemy fleet fleeing from the battlefield, and as it turned out, the ship belonged to Hampson.
“Lady Tia! Hampson’s ship is retreating!”
“We can’t let him escape. Make sure we kill him.”
As if to respond to her merciless words, Hampson’s face appeared on the bridge’s monitor.
[Christina, don’t think this is over yet! You, who have brought harm to Lord Farabar’s immortal fleet, will surely face hell!]
Tia burst into laughter at the mention of Farabar. However, immediately afterward, her face became blank.
Hampson’s cheeks twitched as he witnessed the volatile nature of Tia’s emotions.
Tia, of course, couldn’t care less what he thought of her.
“I’ve already had a taste of hell before. Now, it’s your turn.”
[CHRISTINAAAAAAAAAAA!!]
And with that, his ship was blown to smithereens. The bridge of his spaceship was engulfed in light, and everything within it was vaporized.
Tia smiled dreamily.
“Now, let’s go help Lord Liam.”
◇
Meanwhile, Marie’s fleet was preoccupied with torturing Viscount Toraido and his men.
“Tch! Stop screaming! I’ve hardly started!”
Aboard her mobile knight, Marie was dismembering Viscount Toraido’s battleship, with the Viscount held tightly in one of its hands.
The Viscount, struggling in outer space, was repeatedly crushed by Marie’s mobile knight, again and again and again and again and again and again.
Each time, he would be revived instantaneously.
Initially, he was shouting confidently, “Is this all you’ve got!?”
However, with time, this changed to “L-listen to me,” and then to “W-wait! Please wait!”
However, Marie had no intention of holding a discussion, and she continued to attack nearby vessels while crushing the Viscount with one of her hands.
The enemy ships no longer had any semblance of their original appearance, having been destroyed and repaired too many times.
The launch ports of optical weapons had become distorted, and many ships began self-destructing while trying to initiate an attack.
As a result, they gradually transformed into something that couldn’t be considered a battleship.
The same went for Viscount Toraido’s ship. It was now nothing more than an iron dumpling drifting in space, its crew members writhing in agony.
Marie calmly pulled the trigger of her mobile knight’s rifle. The ship was pierced through, its parts scattering all around, yet they swiftly gathered back together for repairs once more.
Her subordinates were performing similar acts, creating a gruesome scene.
It was a sight to behold, a display of might by the Banfield Family.
In the grasp of Marie’s mobile knight, Viscount Toraido pled forgiveness, having endured countless rounds of death, his appearance now a far cry from what it once was.
[F-forgive me―Just―kill―me―already―]
Even though the Viscount was in outer space, it was possible to hold a conversation with him as his lips could be read and converted to speech inside the cockpit.
The only way for Viscount Toraido to escape the suffering was to cease to be immortal.
However, Marie wasn’t going to allow that so easily.
“We had to endure two thousand years of that! You and your subordinates will wander the universe as disfigured chunks of meat for all of eternity!!”
And with that, she slammed the Viscount into his ship, pointed her rifle, and pulled the trigger.
Once again, he was instantly revived, but he was now fused with the ship and was unable to move.
[Someone, anyone, save me!!]
He screamed in pain and despair, but Marie naturally ignored his pleas.
Soon, a friendly aircraft approached.
[Marie, Tia’s fleet is headed to Lord Liam’s rescue! Number Four is on her way as well! At this rate, they’ll get to him before us!]
Marie’s tone became rough once she heard that the others were a step ahead of her.
“We can’t let the minced woman beat us to the punch! Stop playing around, you maggots! Quickly board the mothership; we’ll be the ones to rescue Lord Liam!”
Her subordinates reluctantly began returning to their mothership.
Marie had been the one to create this mess in the first place, yet they were now being reprimanded for it.
[Marie was having the most fun, wasn’t she?]
[Oh well, rescuing Lord Liam does come first.]
[It’s certainly better than letting the minced woman win without a fight.]
Hearing their complaints, Marie kicked the mobile knights of her subordinates.
“Shut up and hurry up, you idiots!”
—————————————————————————————————–
Brian (′;ω;｀): “Our knights seem to have worse personalities than even the villains, it’s painful. It’s reassuring to have them on our side, but let’s pray that more decent knights appear soon.”
Wakagi-chan (；?`д?′): “If you’re looking for characters with even worse personalities, look no further! I don’t recommend it, but [Pandora of Fantasy and Reality] fits the bill perfectly!
Brian (*′?`*): “Forget about Pandora ― I hope everyone’s enjoying their New Year’s holidays. The four works that were released last December are currently on sale. If you’re free, we’d greatly appreciate you grabbing a copy!”
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